Kingdom Come Deliverance: Combat Guide Kingdom Come Deliverance Guide & Walkthrough

This page of the Kingdom Come guide contains tips and notes regarding combat, both melee and ranged.

Last update: 27 October 2022

Combat is one of the most important and complex elements in Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Visit the training camp to learn the basics of combat. On this page of the guide you can find the most important information about the combat system as well as various tips that can help you win duels and save your hero from serious wounds.

• Melee weapons
• Ranged weapons
• Armor
• Advanced melee moves
• Health and stamina bars
• Facing multiple enemies
• Escaping from a battlefield or surrendering
• Avoiding combat

Melee weapons

Kingdom Come: Deliverance offers multiple types of melee weapons. Remember about a few important factors when you are choosing a weapon for your character.

1. What are the statistics requirements of the weapon (for example, 5 Strength points)? Don't use such weapon if Henry doesn't have his statistics developed enough. Otherwise, the weapon will be much less effective. Stick to weaker weapons and as you fight and spar your required parameter will increase.
2. What type of damage it deals? The damage can belong to stab, slash or blunt type. Damage type is very important depending on who you want to attack. Swords and other sharp weapons are most effective against enemies lacking armors or using only light armor. If you want to defeat the enemy in heavy armor, you should equip Henry with a blunt weapon (for example a hammer). You can always check weapon stats and easily check in what type of damage it is best.
3. What is that weapon's durability? Don't forget that worn out weapons are less efficient. For example, a weapon with 75% durability deals 1/4 less damage. Weapons bought from traders or stolen from houses usually have 100% durability but those, e.g. found on corpses can be a little bit worn out. You can try to fix them by using a grindstone but this process is risky and can give you completely different results. You can also pay a blacksmith for the repair.
4. Should I use a one-handed or a two-handed weapon? There is no right choice here because each one of the available weapons has its pros and cons. However, it should be mentioned that one-handed weapons let you hold a shield which gives you a better protection.

Ranged weapons

Kingdom Come: Deliverance also lets you use bows. Sadly, these weapons are rather problematic because the game wants to be as realistic as possible. This means that you don't get any crosshairs whatsoever. Practice a few times on a shooting range before you participate in real combat and learn arrows' trajectory. Bows are really useful in battles during where you are accompanied by other characters. This can give you more time to shoot before your foes focus their attention on you.

Armor

In Kingdom Come: Deliverance you don't wear only one layer of armor. Instead, you have multiple slots where you place different parts of armor (e.g. breastplate, gloves, boots or head piece). In general, armors in the game are divided into light, medium and heavy. Your hero doesn't have to wear pieces of gear only from one group. If you, e.g. think that a particular body part needs more protection then you can wear a heavier piece of armor while the rest can be from the light category.

Below you can find a few other tips regarding armors:

1. Pieces of armor can also wear out but only when you get hit in that particular body part. This reduces their protection from incoming strikes. You can repair the armor with repair kits or you can pay specialists to do it for you.
2. Difficulty of fights can be influenced by your head piece. Wearing a piece that offers full protection (e.g. a helmet) can greatly reduce your character's visibility which, in turn, makes blocking and attacking more difficult. On the other hand, wearing a good helmet can protect you from, e.g. being shot in the head and receiving a lot of damage or even dying. Equip your hero with a headpiece that offers a good compromise between visibility and protection before start a more challenging fight.
3. Currently equipped pieces of armor not only influence your defense but they also have impact on various statistics of your character. They can influence how visible your character is and how much noise he makes. Remove all pieces of armor that lower these stats before you try to sneak into a location.
4. You can also find slots for rings and necklaces but these items HAVE NO IMPACT on the hero's stats. Their only "use" is that your character can look more noble or pretend that he is wealthy. This can lead to a situation where some of the NPCs will treat you differently (higher charisma in character statistics)..

Advanced melee moves

Swinging your sword blindly isn't a good idea in Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Using this tactic means that you should spend more time in the training camp. The first training camp is under command of Master Bernard - you'll be able to train with him in the course of Train Hard, Fight Easy story quest.

There, you can ask a trainer to teach you the most important moves and test you in a sparring which lets you try out moves without a fear that you will die. You should focus especially on learning the following moves:

1. Blocking attacks. Pay attention to the small shield icon - it indicates the perfect moment to block. Practice both methods of blocking: with a sword and a shield.
2. Counterattacks. This can only be used after performing a perfect block. Using this move a lot is highly recommended.
3. Attacking various body parts. This is yet another move that you should practice because otherwise your attacks can be blocked by an enemy.
4. Feigning attacks aimed at a particular body part. These moves aren't easy but they can help you weaken better-trained enemies who can "estimate" and block most of your standard attacks.
5. Using combo attacks. Combos are the best way to deal consecutive damage. Remember that the game won't help you with using them. The game offers a lot of various combinations. Remember the attacks that should be done one after another. Each of the swings must reach their target otherwise you won't be able to complete that combo.
6. Dodges. They are an alternative to blocks. Use them when your hero is weakened and he needs a moment to breathe and prepare for another attack. Dodges are also useful when you are facing more than one enemy at the same time and you don't have time to block attacks of someone who stands a little bit farther to the right or the left.

Health and stamina bars

Another very important combat element in Kingdom Come: Deliverance is to pay attention to both health and stamina bars. Never ignore them. Below you can find a few important information about the way they function and what are the consequences of depleting them:

1. Paradoxically, stamina bar is more important than health bar. The reason is that stamina bar is the one you have to monitor constantly throughout an entire fight. It depletes whenever you are using an attack (or you are performing an action that requires physical exertion) AND when you get hit. It serves as an additional health bar - the "real" health goes down only after depleting entire stamina. Remember that stamina won't protect you from some of the unique attacks, e.g. being shot in the head.
2. It can regenerate during a fight but only after you stop using attacks and other activities that require stamina. Keep your distance from an enemy after attacking or performing a series of hits (regardless of whether they hit the target or not) to let stamina regenerate. Go back to a fight only after your stamina goes back to a sufficient level that lets you use more attacks. Unlocking certain perks can improve your stamina.
3. You can lose health only when you receive damage that can't be "absorbed" by the stamina bar. This state is very undesirable because health can't regenerate itself. On top of that you can heal your wounds only after finishing a fight or fights. Because of that you need to approach each fight with a mindset that your health bar should last throughout an entire battle. As a result, make sure that the health bar "lasts" for the whole fight.
4. However, there are situations where healing your hero completely may be more problematic, e.g. when your character broke an arm or a leg or when an enemy inflicted a negative status (e.g. bleeding). If a situation like that happens, then in addition to regular health regeneration you must use health potions or bandages

Facing multiple enemies

Combat in Kingdom Come: Deliverance works best when you are facing a single opponent. This gives you a full control over how and when you want to attack your enemy or when to fall back, plan your next move and wait for stamina to regenerate. Sadly, some of the fights require you to defeat a few enemies. This forces you to change your approach. Here you can find a few tips:

1. An important thing to remember is that enemies won't stand still if you don't attack them. You have to be always prepared to block an incoming attack. Try to have them in your view all the time (don't have them on your left, right, or behind your back). Otherwise, you will miss a moment of their attack.
2. Never attack until you deplete your entire stamina. It is easier to get hit by surprise when you are fighting with multiple foes. There is a greater risk that your hero won't have enough stamina to absorb the damage. Move away from enemies when you lose about 2/3 of your stamina bar and wait until it regenerates fully.
3. Try to plan your attacks before you engage foes in combat. The first enemies you should defeat are the ones equipped with bows and those with shortest health bars. Defeat them one after another and try to limit their numbers fast.
4. Helping your companions is a good idea. By doing that you can help them survive a battle which, in turn, won't make this particular fight more difficult. However, you have to remember to not hurt them with your swings.
5. In default, the camera locks on a nearest enemy but this option can be turned off. This can give you more control over how your character moves on a battlefield but, on the other hand, it makes using attacks more difficult.

Escaping from a battlefield or surrendering

Despite having a high-class gear and being prepared, some fights can be too challenging for your hero. However, escaping from a battlefield won't fail a quest or end with a game over. Of course, this can lower your chances to win but this isn't always the case. Pay attention to enemy archers when you are running away and disappear from their view.

You can also use an option to surrender. This is the last thing that you can do when your hero is near death and you don't want to (or you can't) "cheat" with reloading a previous save. However, you should know that not every enemy act honorably which means that some of them won't accept your surrender.

Avoiding combat

Some situations can even let you avoid combat altogether. This can be useful for encounters with strong enemies but you can also use this way of solving problems when you want to play as a character who relies on persuasion or you don't want to kill an important NPC.

The first thing that lets you avoid combat is stealth - thanks to this mechanic you can avoid groups of enemies or steal a quest item without alarming everyone. Remember to scout an area, wear clothes that make you harder to detect and, if possible, sneak at night.

Another way of avoiding confrontations is to use unique dialog lines connected to speech. You can do that when you meet a (potential) hostile character. If you succeed (at persuading, impressing, intimidating or bribing), you will change this character's mind. The result is that you won't be attacked by that NPC. However, you won't always succeed. Besides increasing your speech, you should also remember to save your game before each dangerous encounter. When that fails then you should try to use other available dialog lines.